


age of innocence

by londer



Category: A Crown of Candy - Fandom, Dimension 20
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arranged Marriage, F/M, Future Fic, Gen, Patricide, a crown of candy spoilers!!, oc children (mentioned), spec fic on one way the campaign could go, the summary is a lil clickbaity sorry, written post ep. 6 and pre ep. 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:01:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24274741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/londer/pseuds/londer
Summary: Liam lines up the shot, closes his eyes, and pulls the trigger. When he opens them again, Amethar is kneeling on the ground before him.
Relationships: Liam Wilhelmina & Ruby Rocks
Comments: 6
Kudos: 50





	age of innocence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mapped](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mapped/gifts).



> For mapped, who always leaves the kindest comments.  
> CW for an arranged marriage, but there's no non-con

Liam lines up the shot, closes his eyes, and pulls the trigger. When he opens them again, Amethar is kneeling on the ground before him. The broken body of Liam’s father is in his arms, blood splattering the gilt inlaid floors. Amethar had done all the real work, but Liam has to be the one to end Joren Jawbreaker. The air is sickly sweet with candy and blood, but Liam doesn’t vomit because he can’t. Kings do not puke in public, even newly minted boy-kings. 

The Pontifex Rex is furious, but the war cannot continue. Liam swore his fealty to the Bulbian Church when he became a ward. A child’s promise, forced by treaty but legally binding in the eyes of the faith. Liam is King of Candia, Liam is a sworn member of the church, Candia is no longer in violation of the Concord. The church wants to name the regent, fill his council with advisors under Brassica’s grasp.

They’re too late. Liam and Ruby wed at dawn on his eighteenth Saint’s Day, five days after Jet and Theo stand the many heads of his many brothers on pikes outside of Jawbreak Keep. Their time table was perfect, word only reaching Comida about the invasion in time for the next messenger to bring word of the new King’s wedding. Ruby may be a bastard in the eyes of the church, but Liam is the king. If the church wants to invalidate their marriage, they must also invalidate the marriage that illegitimized the girls in the first place. In one union they secure the throne of Candia, for to contest either the other is solidified. 

They find a refugee Bulbian priest (from Fructa, less suspicion of internal corruption) to bless their union in the still-smoldering wreckage of the cathedral at Castle Candy. Even in death Lapin still serves to place the blame on any witchcraft the two have ever been blamed for, and they are bound freely in the eyes of the faith. 

Their wedding night is a business affair. Both know what is on the line if the church can suggest their union is incomplete, how desperately Candia needs an uncontestable heir. They try to make it pleasant anyways. Both have known this was coming for months, both have been on the receiving end of questionable advice from their company for weeks now. It’s not so far a leap, to lovers. The three months between the excommunication and Liam’s Saint’s Day were spent in constant company, all modesty and distance between them lost in the march of war. Nights spent curled under the same blanket for warmth, days guarding each other while washing in the streams, fighting back to back in a dozen battles. Ruby’s arms around him as he wept in the empty bloody keep after the final assault on his childhood.

The bond that exists between them was forged by hardship, but there is strength in sweetness. They kiss, run hands over each other’s bodies, laugh and fumble their way through their duty. The priest that wedded them inspects the sheets the following morning and declares their bond eternal under the Bulb. Ruby and Liam might never love each other in the way of matrimony, but as they sit and burn their wedding sheets on a small campfire, he knows that there is love enough between them. Steady companionship will be enough for them both, for now, and what grows will grow.

They arrive back in Comida to sign the new accords of peace to little fanfare. The other nobles seem grateful to have averted further war. The Pontifex seems ready to burn the city to the ground to start it anew. 

“You killed your family,” She spits at him when they are in the Emperor’s small council chambers. "The Bulb will not recognize you in its light."

“I killed heretics and traitors,” Liam replies coolly, "The Bulb shines brighter upon me for it." It's the right thing to say, and the mood in the room shifts a little. The other nobles do not like how far the Pontifex’ reach extended during the war, do not like the knowledge that she would turn on any of them to seize more power. 

They sign the papers. The war, at a standstill for weeks now, formally ends. The treaty is a bucket of cola to prevent the reignition of embers. Liam and Ruby’s children will be the legitimate heirs to Candia, but five generations must pass before Candia can hope to lay claim to the Concordant Throne. Liam pretends this is an outrage, but he is privately relieved that this is the only stipulation. Their holding no further power costs so little in the face of additional taxes or forces or wards levied. 

They return to Candia and rebuild. The countryside was slashed and burned, and there are funerals still to hold. Their new Primogen is carefully chosen: a rail thin woman, from Candia, but a distant cousin to the Pontifex. She and the royal family hold themselves at a distance. There is no animosity, but they watch each other. Liam knows this woman will influence his children heavily. The Primogen knows that the royal family only tolerates her out of ceremony. No one is happy, but that is compromise. 

Ruby has twins a year after their marriage. A daughter and son, both spitting images of their father. Liam wants to name the boy Preston. Ruby negotiates it as a middle name (“We can’t name our son after a pig, think of what the other children will do to him, Liam!”), and Sapphira and Jasper are christened in the light of the Bulb. 

Amethar and Caramelinda live quietly in Castle Candy. Amethar helps raise the children, and Caramelinda helps run the country. Liam was never raised for statecraft, too many brothers ahead of him even for the Jawbreaker Duchy. Under Caramelinda’s tutelage, Candia begins to restore itself. The rivers run sweet with cola, the fields sprout with danish vines and peppermint stalks. Years pass. They have a second son, Onyx. Sir Theobald retires and becomes Uncle Theo, terrorizing the castle with his elaborate antics, the children run screeching in his wake. Jet takes his place at the head of the Tartguard.

There is prosperity in Candia. Yet Liam wakes up every night screaming, seeing the remnants of his father on the ground. In some nightmares Amethar eats Joren’s heart. In others, it is Ruby on the ground, or his children. Ruby is withering at the strain of repressing her powers. Six years, seven, still not enough distance from the church, from war breaking out anew should the Pontifex suspect that it was not Lapin after all who cast those spells. Maybe in another ten years they will do small untraceable magic, but not now, not yet. Caramelinda still seethes quietly over what the Pontifex has done to her name, her honor, her family. Their new Primogen continues to watch them from a distance, and none of them are truly safe. This is the price of peace for Calorum.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr [here](https://elsie-writes.tumblr.com)


End file.
